


Scrape

by azaIea



Category: Fantastic Four (Comicverse), Marvel (Comics), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Dimension Travel, Secrets, Ultimates - Freeform, i will tag more as i go along
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-24
Updated: 2017-01-24
Packaged: 2018-09-19 15:06:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9446864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azaIea/pseuds/azaIea
Summary: Peter didn't ask for all this drama in his life. He didn't ask for clones either. And he definitely didn't ask for said clone to go and make out with their long time crush, Johnny Storm, right before they were assigned to go on some mission together. This was going to be a long trip.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This starts at Ultimate Spiderman 2009 #9! If you don't understand the references, go read that issue first. (Also: for convenience, Gwen and Peter have already broken up in this fic.) This is gonna end up being a really long fic, so think of this as kind of a preview i guess?
> 
> Please let me know what you think about the characterization! I need a little help with Johnny in particular.
> 
> Thanks for reading!

            It all started two weeks ago after Johnny came home and loudly announced that he had kissed Spiderwoman. And she had kissed back.

            _I’m going to kill her._ Peter had thought as he stood there, completely mortified. It wasn’t like anyone _knew_ that she was his clone. Logically, he knew that there was no way Johnny would ever find out. _Unless I keep standing here looking at him like this. Or unless MJ tells him. Does MJ even know? Oh god I’m losing track of my secrets._

            “What? You work with her, right?” Johnny had interrupted his panicked thoughts by yelling in a tone which Peter guessed was a mix between embarrassment and indignation. So, he’d noticed the stare. “I mean she said she knew you so…?” Peter turned away from him to try to walk down the hall and anywhere other than the tiny space that this whole crazy family was squeezed in at the front door, but Johnny grabbed his arm at the elbow. “Peter, come on! Do you like her? Is that it? Because I can totally lay off I guess if—”

            Peter had nearly gagged at the thought and turned around quickly with a look that he hoped was clearly disgust “No! God, no!” at that point he decided instead to walk straight past Johnny and out the front door. Was it stuffy in there or what, haha?

“Wait, Peter!” Johnny was yelling desperately from just inside the house, but Peter could see briefly from the corner of his eye that Gwen was holding him back and shaking her head. _Thank god for her._

He spent the rest of that evening taking out his frustrations on every bad guy he saw, and maybe he was a little hard on them, but who could blame him?

 

 

            Two days of successfully avoiding Johnny. Two whole days. That had to win him some kind of award, right? Considering the two live in the same house together, go to school together, and also patrol _at the same times._ (That is, when Johnny did patrol. Which he totally did the past two days and Peter tried really freaking hard not to think about the fact that he was probably out there looking for him, and he tried _really_ really hard not to think of the warm flutter he could feel in his heart every time he tried not to think about the first thing.) He really deserved an award. Like ice cream, or a trophy. Not the awkward silence that settled over him and Johnny when he was finally _LITERALLY_ cornered in his room. Peter briefly considered just climbing up the wall and out the window where Johnny couldn’t reach him, but he decided he at least owed Johnny a conversation and some kind of believable lie about the reason for his behavior. Plus, he missed the guy. Sue him.

            Curse Jessica for bringing back his carefully repressed unrequited crush on Johnny Storm. Curse her for being able to pursue a romantic relationship with him. Curse her for putting him in this situation at all. He couldn’t look Johnny in the eye, but looking at him anywhere else was no good either because _wow he looks way too good in that shirt could you stop now please?_ Peter glances around the room instead, taking time to carefully examine the pile of textbooks and papers that had been knocked over in their struggle to the corner where Johnny currently had his hands on both walls, effectively trapping him. Or, it would have been effective if Peter didn’t have superpowers. Okay, no, yeah, it was very effective because _oh god he’s so close I can feel him breathing on my face oh lord save me now just look at the books look at the books—_

Johnny suddenly looked back at where Peter was staring. “ _Please_ tell me you’re not thinking about homework right now.” His eyebrows were turned up and he looked genuinely hurt. Well, frick.

            But, Peter being Peter, decided to take the out. It’s not like he could explain why he was _actually_ looking in that direction anyways. “Um, yes…? I _was_ in the middle of studying y’know.”

            “You’ve been avoiding me for days! Study later.” Peter let Johnny take his arm and drag him over to his desk chair. Johnny then shoved him back so he landed sitting in it, and he sat in front of him at the foot of the bed. “Come on, talk to me.”

            Peter huffed. What was he supposed to say? He had spent two days trying to come up with an excuse but his supposed ‘genius’ brain was coming up with nothing but blanks.

            “Please, Peter, I can’t know what I did wrong unless you tell me!” Johnny looked at him with the most desperate, pleading, puppy dog eyes he’d ever seen and he suddenly wanted to do nothing but reassure him and hug him and tell him the truth.

            No, wait, truth is not an option. He’d try his best anyways. He sighed and ran his hand through the measly amount of hair he had left after his exes all ganged up on him with those evil, evil haircutting scissors. “Johnny you didn’t do anything wrong alright? It was all her, and I was just… avoiding you until I could get everything settled but _she’s avoiding me too_.” Peter tried not to sound too angry at the last part. Really, he wasn’t gonna yell or hate her, he just needed to discuss the logistics of keeping them both in the closet as bisexual. As well as, maybe, a little bit of _why the hell did you have to do that with Johnny Storm of all people._

            “So you do know her,” Johnny confirmed, and Peter nodded stiffly. He seemed to be thinking for a moment before he spoke again.  “So, what, do you guys have a thing? Are you dating?”

            “NO!” came out of Peters mouth, very loud and very sudden, before he even registered what was happening. Johnny looked shocked and kind of scared for a moment before Peter corrected himself. “I mean, no,” he said much quieter. “We are not in any kind of relationship. At all. She doesn’t even live in New York. Or, at least so I thought…”

            Johnny looked at him way too closely for a moment and then made a face that said ‘ _Wow I just figured out everything and the world makes all the sense now.’_ This was it. Peter was so screwed. “I get it…”

            “No.” Peter was quick to interrupt him.

            “No listen, I get it.”

            “Please.”

            “Peter, you’re jealous. Like crazy I-will-kill-a-person type _super_ jealous.” He was done for. Dead. Forced out of the closet. He’d have to admit to everything. This was the end of his peaceful life of repressed gay feelings.

            “Johnny, listen, before you say anything else—” Peter tried to make an attempt of some kind of dignity because was he _seriously_ that easy to read? But Johnny didn’t seem to be listening to him at all.

            He was staring into space and nodding to himself. “Yep. All the signs are there, Peter. You are head over heels in love with Spiderwoman.”

            Peter groaned loudly and buried his face in his hands. Why did he keep coming to that conclusion over and over again? Why was he so infuriating? Peter groaned again, loudly, almost like a dying animal.

            “Peter, it’s okay! Believe it or not I’ve had some issues with unrequited feelings before. It’s tough. I’m here for you, though, okay? I’ll stay away from her as long as you need and I’m always here to talk if you want.” Johnny sounded so genuine it made his heart ache. Why was his life such a miserable mess?

            Instead of going out with dignity, he decides to keep up with the dying animal impression. He folds himself the rest of the way down, so his arms are around his knees and his head between his thighs, feet still dangling off the chair and hovering above the floor just slightly. “ _Get out_ ,” he moaned pathetically.

            Johnny had the nerve to laugh quietly. Peter felt like he was going to cry, this was so overwhelming. “Pete, it’s oka—”

“ _OUT_ ,” Peter moaned again. As soon as Johnny left he was going to cry so much. So much.

            “Alright, alright, I’m going!” Peter peaked up and regretted it instantly when he saw him grinning back at him, eyes filled with laughter. _I hate him. I think I really hate him. That’s my problem. I’m not bi, I’m just a masochist. Emotionally._ He buries his face back into his thighs and lets out the loudest and most dramatically pained moan possible as Johnny runs from his room giggling, thinking he’s got everything all figured out. _I’m never gonna hear the end of this_.

 

 

            And he didn’t. Two weeks after that dreadful day he was _still_ hearing jokes about the “Amazing spider-couple” and he just wanted it all to stop. He was nearly constantly calling and texting Jessica _pleading_ that they have at least some discussion about what was going on. It wasn’t until now that he had the opportunity.

            The Ultimates had called him in saying it was an emergency. Something to do with anarchy, controlled chaos, some kind of really strange political movement that encouraged violence, blah blah blah, but all Peter really cared about now was a bunch of people shooting guns at civilians. _Children_ , even. He’d thought he knew a little about this whole anarchist movement just from being online, but he didn’t think it went this far. _Guess everyone’s got extremism. Or maybe it’s just an excuse. Who knows._

            That’s when he saw her. Swinging past on a web, hair flying in the wind, she reached down and pulled a civilian off the streets just like Peter had been doing. He landed on a roof to set the civilian he’d been carrying down and stopped to stare at her while she did the same on a roof just across the street. “Stop staring and help me!” she yelled, jumping down from the roof and kicking one of the gunmen in the face on her way down before taking a running leap back into the air.

            Peter quickly caught up with her. “So, are you gonna talk to me, or what? I’m dying here! I started actually planning my own funeral yesterday.” He had to yell over the wind because of how fast they were swinging. Suddenly Jessica dropped to the ground to grab a couple more civilians, and Peter did the same, looking around to see if there were any more in sight. There weren’t

            She glanced at him before swinging back up, and she was not going for the closest roof. The civilians were just a cover so that they couldn’t _actually_ talk. Peter tried not to growl in frustration as he followed.

            “I… Yes? No. Maybe?” came the reply from just ahead. Soon it would get too awkward to keep carrying the civilians, so she landed on a random roof, Peter close on her tail.

            “Please?” he asks, dragging out the word childishly. He sets down the people he was carrying and walked towards her immediately even though she was clearly backing away from him as if he were diseased. “Seriously, I’m not above begging. I will get on my knees and beg right in front of these people, honestly. I don’t have an ounce of dignity left.” He could hear one of the people behind him giggling quietly and he didn’t even have the energy to be embarrassed.

            She sighed and rubbed one of her temples before stuttering, “We- we’re working right now, we can’t exactly just—” just then their comms crackled to life. Peter had never been so glad to hear Caps’ voice.

            _The situation is under control and we’ve taken everyone in. Thank you all for the help. We’re done here today._

Peter instantly clasped his hands together pleadingly. “You were saying?” Then he looked around dramatically and stage whispered, “You can’t see it right now but I’m giving you the biggest puppy eyes. They’re adorable. Irresistible.” He kept his hands clasped together and gave her a grin, knowing she could see the expression through the mask. She _had_ worn it every day for quite some time in her imaginary life.

            She groaned with frustration and put a hand to her forehead. “How are you so infuriating? How do you do it? Am _I_ this annoying?” She looked back down at him for a moment before saying “Ugh, fine.” Before he could give her a grateful hug she put a hand up to his face. “Let’s go someplace else.”

            They decided to sit at the edge of a very tall building for their chat. It was nearing sunset and the sky had turned a shade of light orange mixed with blue and wisps of white clouds. It would have been nice, if not for the subject at hand.

            “So…” Peter wrung his hands awkwardly. It was hard to talk about stuff so personal. He’s so used to keeping things to himself that it was really difficult to say anything here, even knowing full well that they both knew everything anyways.

            After a long silence Jessica looked over to him. “Why are we here exactly? There isn’t anything to say. We both know what the other is thinking.”

            “ _No,_ you know what _I’m_ thinking because it’s really easy to put yourself in my shoes. _I_ don’t know what _you’re_ thinking.” Peter tried to be patient with her. He was sure she didn’t mean to ruin his life. I mean who could have predicted that everyone would make assumptions and he would end up in this theoretical self-cest nightmare. And yes, the term nightmare was accurate as he had in fact been having nightmares about it. For real. He’s almost died so many times and yet he’s having nightmares about being in a relationship with his clone. Unbelievably pathetic.

            Jessica makes an indiscernible noise and gets up to start pacing. “I don’t know! He was flirting with me and I tried to run away, but he kept following me. And then he found me again and I realized that I didn’t have anything to hide, because, y’know, it would be a straight thing? Now? I guess? Full on hetero.” Peter gets up and grabs her shoulders to stop her from pacing too far and falling off the roof.

            “That- that would make sense. Except for the fact that eventually you would have to tell him that you are a clone of Peter Parker, and totally reveal everything that I’ve spent, like, my entire life to keep hidden!” he was bordering on desperate. Was she seriously trying to reason with him?

            “That’s a bit of an exaggeration, and he doesn’t have to know that the feelings are from the Peter part of me! I can just say they’re from the me side of me.”

            “But, see, that still totally outs me as bi. Which cannot happen. Ever.”

            “He wouldn’t assume! Plus, you’ll probably be out by then anyways, so it’s no big deal.”

            “ _No big deal?_ ” He couldn’t believe this was happening. She was seriously considering dating Johnny. For real. He might die from the mortification.

            “You’re just jealous! You’re trying to sabotage this because you want him just as much as I do!” She pointed a finger at him angrily and she looked kinda terrifying for a second

            “ _Of course I’m jealous_ , but that’s not the only reason why you can’t date him! I mean yeah, maybe it would totally suck to have to see you hanging off of what I wanted to be _my_ future husband but—”

            “It doesn’t matter what you want, though, because he’s straight! And he was totally flirting with me, and his hair looks so cute in black, and he’s _straight_ —”

            “ _What the fuck, Jessica_?” His precognition was too late to warn him of her hand slapping over his mouth, _hard._ He may have said that a little louder than he needed to

            “Secret identity?” she hissed, squeezing his face painfully until he lets out a muffled pleading sound.

            Quieter this time, he looks at her and rubs his jaw. “What the fuck, though? Seriously? You do realize that this is totally ruining my life right? Like, for real, if I didn’t have PTSD before I’d develop it from this alone. I’m not kidding.”

            “Quit whining, drama queen. It shouldn’t affect you at all! You’re just over thinking everything! As per usual.”

            “No, you don’t understand. It’s not just jealousy. You don’t know what they’re doing to me at home! They think I’m—”

            “Uhh… Spidey? Spiderwoman? What are you doing here?” Peter is suddenly dreadfully aware of the warmth near his side and turns, arms still frozen where he’d been flailing them wildly, and looks at the vaguely human shaped column of flame that neither of them had noticed before. “Oh no…” Johnny lands next to Peter and puts a gentle hand on his arm as he relaxes them and turned to Jessica. “Did he tell you? Is that what’s happening?”

            She tilts her head slightly to convey confusion. “Tell me what, exactly?” her voice was wary and she looked between Johnny and Peter as if one of their faces would tell her the answer right now immediately.

            “That he’s in love with you?” Johnny looked slowly towards Peter, but he was still looking straight at Jessica as if Johnny didn’t exist. “You did… tell her right?”

            After a short awkward silence Jessica cleared her throat. “Excuse me, sorry, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.” Beside him, Peter felt Johnny stiffen and could only imagine the shocked look on his face, but he just laughed bitterly because he’d had nearly the same reaction.

            “I know! That’s what I was _trying_ to tell you when you kept interrupting me. They’re crazy! They won’t leave me alone!” Judging by the look he could vaguely see through her mask, her mind was running through all kinds of scenarios and she was just as disturbed as Peter had been.

            “I may not sleep for a week.”

            “Uh huh.” He didn’t even try to keep the smugness out of his voice.

            “Okay I’m willing to admit you may be partially right.” She’s totally pouting, and Johnny is looking between the two of them like they’re speaking a foreign language. “I did leave for a reason. The Ultimates needed me back here, but the city is only so big…” she puts a finger to her chin thoughtfully. “I’ll text you later tonight to let you know my final plan.” She stands there for a moment before pulling him away from Johnny and hopefully out of earshot. “I swear to god, if I hear you end up having a thing with him I’ll get back with MJ out of revenge and also because you and I both know she’s perfect. And I’ll also beat you up.” She sounded deadly serious, even though Peter thought that her threat sounded kind of silly when she added the genuine praise of MJ being perfect.

            “I swear I will let you throw me off a bridge if that happens. He’s so straight, Jessica. It’s unbearable.”

            “I know, I know.” She pat his shoulder as if she was being supportive but it felt a lot more like she was slapping him. Yep, still mad. Then she turned to Johnny and yelled, “See ya later, maybe! Also, good job, Storm, you rubbed off on our guy. He’s a lot more annoying lately.” Johnny laughed as she turned and jumped off the building, swinging away into the dark. Peter hadn’t even realized how late it’d gotten.

            “So, are you gonna explain what that was all about?” Johnny walked up to him with such a confused expression that Peter laughed. Oh great, he was going into hysterics wasn’t he? _The stress is way too much sometimes._

            “Well… how much did you hear?”

            “I got here in time to hear you say something about PTSD but I have no idea what any of it meant.”

            Peter nodded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. He leaned in closer. “Alright, I’ll tell you all I can.” He sighed dramatically and looked around checking if someone was watching, and then whispered to Johnny, “It’s completely classified. Seriously. _Way_ above your clearance level. You probably shouldn’t even know she exists.”

            His precognition warned him, but he let the very annoyed Johnny shove him anyways, laughing as he fell backwards onto his ass.


End file.
